IIT Bombay has procured low priced laptops in large numbers. The objective is to provide a complete computer system at an affordable price to the students and other users of such a machine. It is an improvement over the tablet project done at IIT Bombay. The laptop has a keyboard which students can use to create content and write computer programs.

Equipped with a large screen of 10 inches, the device has 8 GB NAND flash, 1 GB RAM, 32 GB SD card slot and 5000 mAH Battery – which can last for 4-8 hours depending on applications. It has two USB drives and a mini HDMI port. The machine comes with Ubuntu which has been pre-loaded. Since it is a Linux machine, there is an alternative to MS Office in LibreOffice and its output can be used in MS Office and vice versa. It has free browsers – Firefox and Chromium.

Additionally, it is possible to upload many educational software such as GeoGebra, Freemachine and Scratch. It is possible to upload Integrated Development Environment such as Code::Block. The machine can be used for many programming languages such as Java, Perl, Python, Ruby etc. Additionally, Chemical Engineering simulators such as DWSIM can be loaded on this machine.

Says Professor Kannan Moudgalya, “The laptop revolutionizes computer availability, and is one of the missing pieces of a puzzle. While content and Internet bandwidth are available at low cost, a device at a low price is not available. If we can provide a computer at a low cost of around Rs 5000, we can close the loop and empower our children.”

At present, this machine is available for bulk purchases only. It is supplied by a Delhi based vendor and assembled at Manesar in Haryana. IIT Bombay provides support for the operating system and the software. Professor Kannan believes that IIT Bombay’s work on software will improve the capability of these machines.

DQ Live SlideShow

Pradeep Gupta, CMD, CyberMedia Group welcoming Dr Arvind Gupta, National Head Information Technology, BJP. Dr Gupta was the Chief Guest of the evening

(L-R) Sunil Sharma, VP, Sales, India & Saarc, Cyberoam and Dr Arvind Gupta, National Head IT giving the Dataquest Business Technology Award to Sapient Consulting for the best IT implementation in security, mobility, unified communications, and infrastructure management

Jubilant Lifesciences received the award for best IT implementation in analytics, mobility, cloud, ERP/SCM/CRM

ING Vysya Bank received the award for best IT implementation in mobility and ERP/SCM/CRM, infrastructure management

Escorts received the award for best IT implementation in analytics and security

Amity received the award for best IT implementation in security and unified communications

LV Bank received the award for best IT implementation in unified communications

Biocon received the award for best IT implementation in mobility and unified communications

Happiest Minds received the award for best IT implementation in security and cloud

HCL Infosystems received the award for best IT implementation in cloud and ERP/SCM/CRM

Evalueserve received the award for best IT implementation in security and cloud

Sterlite Technologies received the award for best IT implementation in analytics and cloud

Serco Global received the award for best IT implementation in mobility and cloud

Intellect Design Arena received the award for best IT implementation in cloud and unified communications

Reliance Entertainment received the award for best IT implementation in analytics and cloud

Canon India received the award for best IT implementation in analytics

Persistant Systems received the award for best IT implementation in analytics

ILFS received the award for best IT implementation in infrastructure management

eClerx received the award for best IT implementation in analytics

Sesa Sterlite received the award for best IT implementation in ERP/SCM/CRM

Hero Moto Corp received the award for best IT implementation in ERP?SCM?CRM

KPIT received the award for best IT implementation in unified communications

JK Tyres received the award for best IT implementation in analytics

Idea Cellular received the award for best IT implementation in analytics

Godfrey Philips received the award for best IT implementation in infrastructure management

Aviva Life Insurance Co received the award for best IT implementation in infrastructure management

Hindalco received the award for best IT implementation in analytics

Aircel received the award for best IT implementation in unified communications

Dr Lal Path Labs received the award for best IT implementation in cloud

Gati received the award for best IT implementation in mobility

Perfetti Van Melle received the award for best IT implementation in cloud

Sheela Foam received the award for best IT implementation in mobility

Tata Communication received the award for best IT implementation in ERP/SCM/CRM

NDTV received the award for best IT implementation in analytics

Hindustan Power received the award for best IT implementation in mobility